In hydrocarbon drilling operations, centralizers may be secured at spaced intervals along a tubular string. The centralizers provide a radial stand-off between the tubular and the wall of a drilled borehole in which the tubular is installed. Bow spring centralizers generally include collars defining a bore therethrough to receive the tubular, and a plurality of angularly-spaced bow springs biased to provide stand-off. Bow spring centralizers may collapse to pass, e.g., along with the tubular, through restrictions, and deploy to provide a generally uniform annulus between the exterior of the tubular and the wall of the borehole. Thus, for example in cementing operations, a bow spring centralizer promotes uniform and continuous distribution of cement slurry around the tubular string for cementing the tubular within a targeted interval of the borehole. The resulting cement liner may reinforce the tubular string, isolate the tubular from corrosive formation fluids and prevent fluid flow between penetrated geologic formations.
Currently, when forming a one-piece centralizer, an odd number of bow springs are usually required to be formed. This is because forming tool is positioned between opposing bow springs and expanded, thereby expanding the bow springs outward. With this process and tool, issues arise in forming a one-piece centralizer. For example, the forming process may not have the required stroke/length to appropriately form the opposite bow and therefore would not achieve desired dimensions of the centralizer, e.g., geometry, length, and height. Therefore, there is a need for devices and processes for forming bow springs in one-piece centralizers.